one.

So you might catch me wearing a snazzy bracelet in every single picture on here.  I got it last December from this guy I like to call my boyfriend ;)  on one side, it says "love" and on the other side, it says "10-28-11"

This date refers to the night the kid finally made our relationship official.  We started talking in April, hanging out in June, and our first kiss was July 6, 2011 (which, btw is National Kissing Day. how perfect.).  But we decided to see how things went when I went back to school.  They went great, if you'd like to know.

Someday I might write a post about our relationship because it really is (obviously) a big part of my life, and I think it has a lot to do with the person I am and the things that I do these days.

But anyway, yesterday was our One Year Anniversary! :) That's right, 366 days of this kid bein' my boyfriend. (It was leap year this year if you were confused.)

I told Roger that I just wanted to keep it low-key, as his birthday was less than a month ago and Christmas was coming up.  I'd rather get him two good gifts than three eh gifts.  So that's what we did.  I bought him a new scrapbook album and made him new pages since I hadn't given him any pages since our 6-month anniversary in April.  I'll do a separate post of these pages later.

And did he ever out-do me.  I didn't expect anything less, though.  He's always so much better than I am.  He wanted to keep the whole thing a surprise.  I'm one anxious, impatient girl.

My day started with him telling me he'd pick me up at my house around 1pm.  Well, it turns out he had so much to do to get ready for my surprise that he didn't get to my house until 2:30.  I then got a phone call from him saying,

"When I was in Washington, D.C., it led you to me."

So I was left to figure out this clue and find the next one while he finished driving to my house.  When he was in Washington, D.C. in April, 2011, he gave me his cell phone number for the first time.  So I immediately checked my phone for any unread messages.  Nada.  I then remembered that he gave me his number over Facebook chat, cute I know ;), so I checked there.

And there it was.  I realized he was sending me on a scavenger hunt.  So long story short, we drove all over finding these clues.  Some were at his house, some were in his car, and then some were at the school entrance where he saw me for the first time, and others were at the state park where we went on our first two dates and camped together.  It was really, really special.

Finally, my last clue led me to the scrapbook I'd already made him and inside it was a letter.  The most beautiful letter ever.  I almost cried.  I'm so in love with this guy :)  Then the letter led me to my gift.  He got me two necklaces.  They're both so pretty.  I'm glad he kept the actual gift-part relatively low-key, but the day was definitely a celebration to remember.  And that's exactly what I wanted.

We capped off the night by going to my little sister's sophomore class' haunted house.  I may have screamed.  And almost cried.  But he was there so I felt a little better.

Then we took some pictures of ourselves, to remember our "one-year."

So, babe...
Here's to one official year with you.  I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for us.  By next October, we could be in such a different place!  I don't care though, just as long as you're by my side.  You're my everything.
Love,
Me <3

oh baby! ;)

I just realized that I never shared a huge project that started basically in June and didn't end until September 29.  My boyfriend's sister is having her first baby within the month (!!!) and she asked me to make her baby shower invitations (!!!!!).

The majority of the summer was spent with me just coming up with different ideas and turning them into samples so that she could pick which one she wanted.  The only guidelines she gave me were that she wanted them pink and brown... like the nursery.

So after a million and a half samples that I hated and didn't even want to show her, we ended up collaboratively deciding on my little mason jar invites.

When I started, I used mulberry paper over top of pretty pink backgrounds.  When I went to buy more mulberry paper, it was $2 a sheet at JoAnn's and they didn't even sell it at Michael's!  I found what I thought I wanted online, and when it arrived, it wasn't what I wanted at all :(

After a minor breakdown, my boyfriend convinced me that transparent cardstock would be perfectly fine... and it was!  It wasn't as soft and pretty, but I saved one of the "good" ones for Natasha for the baby book.

To make these, I printed out two mason jars per page of cardstock and cut them out.  I then glued them with craft glue to the scrapbook paper, but only gluing the outsides so that there weren't funny lines all over.  Then, I drew the black line and glued the flags on and then drew the little clothespins.

They were relatively easy, but when you need 60 of them, they were pretty time consuming.  Roger's mom was happy, the guests were happy and impressed, and most importantly, Natasha was happy.  I'm really looking forward to getting to do something like this again!